


Diplomacy

by Merfilly



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-27
Updated: 2008-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 03:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chekov has to face his actions with Mara years later</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diplomacy

Diplomacy was found in many ways. From early encounters of insults being gravely ignored until a senior officer could take no more, to burying the hatchet rather than let an alien entity win, Pavel Chekov had been learning to practice diplomacy as an officer of Starfleet. He did not think he would ever learn to like Klingons, though. That opinion was as fixed in his mind as it was in Kirk's.

Then he saw _her_ at one of the functions they had been unable to escape on Sherman's Planet. The woman he had threatened and then been thoroughly tortured over. Mara, wife of Kang. Klingons never forgot an insult done to them, and Chekov wondered how the evening would pass without incident, knowing her husband had to be somewhere near.

When they did inevitably have to speak, face to face, she recognized him. He started to say an apology, again, for all that it meant so little, but she tilted her head to one side. "All men can fall prey to weakness," she said in a low voice. "True men learn from it, and move forward. It is done, yes?"

Chekov took a deep breath and nodded. "It is done."

She moved on, and later he did see Kang, his wife once more at his side, and unconcerned. The Starfleet officer was left with a respect for a woman that was without a doubt the wisest Klingon he had ever met.


End file.
